REAWAKEN THE SPIRIT OF MIRTH
"The best in this kind are but shadows," Theseus says in
the last act of A Midsummer Night's Dream, "and the worst are no worse, if
imagination amend them." By "this kind" Theseus means actors. Happily, when a
great many Americans next hear the line, the speaker should not need them to be
so forgiving: Alex Jennings, making his American debut in the Royal Shakespeare
Company's production of the Bard's imperishable comedy, recently impressed the
finicky New Yorker as being "the prime joy of London theatregoing." And if the
past is any guide, this traveling Dream could define an era. A quarter century
ago another RSC Dream toured the world. Directed by Peter Brook, it unfolded
under unvaryingly bright light in a white box of a set that recalled the title
of Brook's seminal treatise The Empty Space. The new version, staged by Adrian
Noble, the RSC's current artistic director, deploys lots of light and dark, a
bold palette of primary colors, and a witty, postmodern
passel of props. Well, fashions come and go. What shouldn't have changed since
Brook's production is the exuberance of the actors. Beginning in January, Dream
plays San Francisco, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., prior to a Broadway opening
in March. --A.B.
Rousing from a dream
Photo: Alastair Muir
MAN BEHIND THE MOVES
Remember the mad waiter in She Loves Me, zigzagging among oblivious couples?
Remember the Washington Senators in Damn Yankees, rocketing every which way
around the diamond and still dropping the ball? Broadway has seen some knockout
dance numbers lately, and the man responsible for lots of them is the unsung
Rob Marshall. His signature? Not an angled elbow here or a snazzy floor pattern
there but a Keatonesque trust in gesture, a Tharpian taste for asymmetry, a
Birdlike joy in flights of anarchy against pattern. On Broadway his work is
currently enhancing the sharp Roundabout revival of Sondheim's dull cult
favorite Company (great songs, lousy book) and the gender-bending Julie Andrews
extravaganza Victor/Victoria. At the same time, national touring companies of
Kiss of the Spider Woman (starring Chita Rivera) and the choreographer's chef
d'oeuvre Damn Yankees (starring Jerry Lewis) are spreading Marshallmania coast
to coast. (See local listings.) --A.B.
TAYLOR, TAYLOR BURNING BRIGHT
Paul Taylor is the most Blakean of choreographers. On one wonderful program
during his company's fall season in New York one could see his Roses (1985),
Company B (1991), and Esplanade (1975). There it was--the whole antithetical Taylor scheme, burnished, glowing, full of delight
and regret, hope and loss. Taylor's most romantic dances look increasingly like
reveries, but then his work has always had a dreamlike quality and logic. As
if to correct a tendency toward gloom, the choreographer just introduced
Offenbach Overtures, a funny, Gallic frolic. The Paul Taylor Dance Company is
performing this and the rest of the repertory at a peak, offering a whole
roster of first-among-equal performers, each devoted to ensemble yet fully
capable of filling the stage solo. They are perhaps the most inviting of
dancers, continually enticing one into Taylor's world. Traveling there--out
of oneself and into the dance--is a rich voyage. This month finds the company
in Minneapolis (January 19, Northrop Auditorium), Princeton (January 22,
McCarter Theater), and Frankfurt, Germany. Then they will crisscross the
country throughout the spring. --N.D.
A scene from the varied repertory
Photo: Lois Greenfield
Musical meter seems to function for the choreographer Mark Morris the way
metrical forms function for poets: in every case the music is the given. His
taste in music is wide-ranging--the Mark Morris Dance Group's current repertory
includes dances set to Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Dvorák, Ibert,
Stephen Foster, and Lou Harrison. His taste in movement is equally
broad--ballet, modern, folk, Indian, flamenco, country, fencing. You name it,
Morris has embraced it.
This choreographic statement of inclusion--the Morris philosophy--is also
expressed through his community of dancers, both in their persons and in
their interactions. Within the Morris troupe there is a diversity of color and
of sexuality, with both sexes running the gamut from sinuous to sturdy.
Soloists step out of the group only to return to it. Nonetheless, each dancer
remains distinct, and distinctive--none more so than the choreographer, who is
on tour this month with his company in Florida (at the Gusman Center for
Performing Arts, in Miami, January 12; the Florida Theatre, in Jacksonville,
January 14; and the Duncan Theatre, in Palm Beach, January 16) and in
Pennsylvania (at the Benedum Center, in Pittsburgh, January 20).
--N.D.
Mark Morris
Photo: Chantal Regnault
Austin Baer is a writer based in New York.
Nancy Dalva is a contributor to Dance Ink and other
publications.
